Activists Approach National Green Tribunal Against Government Agencies for Gurgaon and Faridabad

Seek Relief from Destruction of Aravalis by Dumping of Waste, poisoning of Water-table

Gurgaon, September 22nd 2015: An application/petition has been filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by environmental activists over severe damage of the Aravali forests particularly along the Gurgaon-Faridabad and Gurgaon-Delhi road; groundwater table destruction and poisoning, at the Bandhwari sewage treatment plant and dereliction of duty. The application seeks to raise substantial issues related to the environment as a result of which, the community at large is affected and far reaching, irreversible destruction of fragile ecosystems has been triggered due to failure of respondent agencies.

The petition states that various laws have been violated by Government agencies entrusted to uphold them: Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules (2000) ; Plastic Waste (Management & Handling) Rules (2011) ; Bio-Medical Waste Handling Rules (1998) ; Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974, and the Forest Act (2006) . That the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad are disposing of waste in the open, in an ecologically fragile, forested area of the Aravalies which is polluting the ground-water and the forest area. It is also posing a serious health and life hazard to wildlife and by virtue of being at a higher elevation, along natural water drainage and ground-water recharge area, sure to impact public health adversely. This destruction and dumping also destroying the wildlife in the area. The petitioners have also questioned the virgin forest land by changing status from Section 4&5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act. The authorities are also in violation of Supreme Court which directed that such land and the entire Aravalies must remain protected.

Well known environmentalist and activist, Vivek Kamboj, as primary applicant and naturalist Amit Chaudhery as co-applicant, have petitioned the NGT to restrain respondents against dumping any waste in the areas, direct the respondents to remove the waste and take appropriate steps to protect the ecology of the areas in question. They have approached the NGT only after repeatedly requesting the local authorities to observe the laws and to exercise good sense in waste disposal by devising non-polluting, sustainable means. Not only have these repeated requests been unheeded, the rate and scale of destruction has increased manifold with the arterial roads connecting Faridabad and Delhi also being chocked by large-scale dumping of construction, medical and industrial waste. The offenders have gone to the extent of carving passages into the forest to dump waste there. This cannot be allowed to go on.